Datawatch Corporation [BEDFORD, Mass.] (NASDAQ-CM: DWCH) announced that Ken Tacelli has been appointed chief operating officer. Tacelli joined Datawatch in May 2016 and was previously the senior vice president of worldwide sales. Prior to joining Datawatch, Tacelli was senior vice president of worldwide sales for Skillsoft. Previously, he served as senior vice president of worldwide sales for OpenText. Tacelli has also held senior leadership positions at CA Technologies, IBM, Metatomix and EMC. He began his business career after serving the country as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Ken Steinbauer

SICO® Inc. [MINNEAPOLIS] announced the promotion of Ken Steinbauer to President and Chief Operating Officer. He continues as President of SICO America, the largest operating unit of SICO Inc. Since joining the company in 2008 as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for SICO America, Ken was promoted to Executive Vice President and President of SICO America in 2012 and 2013 respectively. He was promoted to Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing in April 2016. Prior to joining SICO, Ken held a number of senior leadership roles at AT&T/Lucent Technologies, Shaw Industries and Lifetouch.

Chad Buecker

Seed Strategy [CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky.] named Chad Buecker as the firm’s new President. Buecker has held the position of Chief Operating Officer since 2012. Before coming to Seed in 2009, Buecker spent time at The BASES Group, Northlich, LAGA, LaunchForce and WonderGroup. Over the course of his career, he’s worked with world-class companies like Kimberly-Clark, Unilever, Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Hershey, McDonald’s and more.

Commercial Metals Company [IRVING, Texas] (NYSE: CMC) announced that it has promoted Barbara R. Smith to the position of President and Chief Operating Officer, which promotion will be effective as of January 11, 2017. Ms. Smith has been the Company’s Chief Operating Officer since January 2016. Ms. Smith joined the Company in May 2011 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and has served as such until her promotion to Chief Operating Officer in January 2016. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Smith served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Gerdau Ameristeel Corporation. Her experience also includes more than 20 years with Alcoa in various leadership roles across a variety of Alcoa’s businesses.

White Lodging Services [MERRILLVILLE, Ind.] announced that Dave Sibley, currently CEO, is now the chief operating officer of the company’s full service portfolio. He will replace COO Keith Daub, who will retire at the end of the year.

TriCo Bancshares [CHICO, Calif.] (NASDAQ: TCBK), the holding company for Tri Counties Bank, announced that John S. Fleshood has been hired as the new Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for TriCo and Tri Counties Bank. Mr. Fleshood will replace Carol Ward, TriCo’s current Chief Operating Officer, who previously announced her retirement earlier this year. Most recently, Mr. Fleshood has served as the Chief Risk Officer at Wintrust Financial Corporation. Prior to Wintrust, he spent 13 years at Fifth Third Bancorp headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. At Fifth Third, Mr. Fleshood held several executive level positions including serving as the CFO for Fifth Third’s largest banking affiliate, and Treasury Manager for the multibank holding company. He began his banking career with an 8 year period at Indiana National Bank.

Greg White

PerfectServe [KNOXVILLE, Tenn] announced that Greg White has been appointed its Chief Operating Officer (COO). Previously, he was senior vice president and general manager of Allscripts Healthcare Solutions’ TouchWorks EMR Division. He also served in rising leadership roles at Cerner Corporation, most recently as managing director of Cerner Middle East and Africa, Dubai, UAE.

bluebird bio, Inc. [CAMBRIDGE, Mass.] (NASDAQ: BLUE) announced that Susanna High was named chief operating officer. Prior to joining bluebird, she worked at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Prior to her time at Alnylam, Ms. High worked at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology).

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